Dhaka, Bangladesh – It all started with a single word: “Razakar“.
In Bangladesh, “Razakar” is a highly offensive term. The word means volunteers, but it refers to those who supported the Pakistani military operation to end the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971 and were accused of heinous crimes.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, who resigned and fled the country in an army helicopter on Monday amid widespread unrest, is known for using this term to label anyone she considered a threat or dissident during his more than 15 years in power.
The daughter of the country’s founder and former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina was the leader of a pro-democracy uprising that ousted military ruler and then-president Hossain Mohammad Ershad from power in 1990.
Hasina became prime minister after her Awami League party won elections in 1996. She returned to power in 2009, helping to achieve impressive economic growth while becoming increasingly autocratic, suppressing freedom of expression. , dissent and opposition in Bangladesh, a country of 170 million and the eighth most populous in the world.
Hasina’s tenure as Bangladesh’s longest-serving female head of government was marked by the use of security forces, including the famous paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion, which she was accused of using to kidnap and even kill opposition members and dissidents, and allegedly rigging the elections.
Even the judicial branch, a largely bipartisan institution, was compromised during her tenure, according to critics, forcing a chief justice to flee the country after opposing her in a ruling.
Then there was the mainstream media, which, critics say, Hasina controlled to craft and maintain a narrative against her opponents. Most of Bangladesh’s major media outlets are owned by companies linked to the Awami League.
Control over the media allowed Hasina to portray her supporters as legitimate heirs to the legacy of the country’s independence and achievements, while also portraying dissidents and opposition members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami (Assembly Islamic Bangladesh) as remnants. of treacherous and “extremist” factions.
Former prime minister and prominent opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia was arrested in 2018 on corruption charges, while a senior Jamaat-e-Islami figure was executed in 2016.
However, Hasina made a critical mistake by labeling students protesting for employment quota reforms as “Razakar”, thus crossing the Rubicon.
Heavy response causes fire
During a press conference on July 14, a reporter asked Hasina about student protests against job quotas that had been going on for more than a week.
In response, Hasina commented dismissively: “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters do not receive [quota] benefits, who will do it? Razakars’ grandchildren?”
His comments sparked an outcry almost immediately. The students felt that their remarks unfairly rejected their efforts to address the “unfair” quota system in public office, which reserved around 30 percent of positions for descendants of freedom fighters from the 1971 liberation movement.
Students began protesting just hours later, marching through the Dhaka University campus, chanting a provocative slogan: “Who are you? I am Razakar.”
Hasina’s response was harsh, involving the student wing of her party, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), and the police to quell the protests. This led to a day of violence on July 16 that resulted in six deaths.
Over the next four days, more than 200 people died, the vast majority of them students and ordinary citizens, while the police and armed BCL cadres fired live ammunition.
Instead of condemning the violence, Hasina focused on the damage caused to government properties such as the subway and state television buildings.
This only fueled the anger of students, who initially demanded a nine-point list of reforms, including Hasina’s unconditional apology and the dismissal of Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan as well as other ministers.
The protesters’ demands ended up merging into a single cry: Hasina’s resignation.
Hasina’s rise to power
Born in 1947 in what used to be East Pakistan, Hasina was politically active from a young age. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, known as the “Father of the Nation,” led Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.
By that time, Hasina had already distinguished herself as a prominent student leader at Dhaka University. The murder of her father and most of her family during a 1975 military coup left her and her younger sister as the only survivors, as they were abroad at the time.
After spending time in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and assumed leadership of the Awami League, a party founded by her father.
She played a crucial role in organizing pro-democracy protests against the military government of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, quickly gaining national prominence.
Hasina became prime minister in 1996, gaining recognition for securing a water-sharing agreement with India and a peace agreement with tribal fighting groups in southeastern Bangladesh.
However, her administration faced criticism for alleged corruption and apparent favoritism towards India, which led to her losing power to her former ally-turned-rival, Begum Khaleda Zia.
In 2008, Hasina was re-elected prime minister in a landslide victory and subsequently led the government for the next 16 years.
Throughout her long tenure, Hasina’s administration was characterized by widespread political arrests and serious abuses, such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Contaminated legacy
Rezaul Karim Rony, editor of Joban magazine, told Al Jazeera: “She should have been tried for these crimes against humanity. Hasina ruled through fear, implementing repressive laws and using her security forces to commit these atrocities.”
According to Human Rights Watch, since the beginning of Sheikh Hasina’s term in office in 2009, security forces have been implicated in more than 600 enforced disappearances.
Between January 2015 and December 2020, at least 755 people described as “militants” or “terrorists” by security forces were killed in 143 alleged shootings and shootings across the country, according to another HRW report.
Rony added: “Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and live in hiding for years, while Hasina used law enforcement to legally harass them and enable extortion.”
Political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman told Al Jazeera that the most significant damage Hasina inflicted on the country was corruption in key institutions such as the judiciary, the electoral commission, the media and law enforcement. He noted that the recovery of these institutions would be a lengthy process.
Hasina previously said she was cracking down on corruption, but critics said there was no evidence the government was ever serious about tackling the problem.
Furthermore, Hasina has tarnished the legacy of Bangladesh’s liberation war by distorting its narrative.
“The student protesters were so angered by Hasina’s labeling them as ‘Razakar’ that they started using the term as a form of protest against her divisive tactics for political gains,” Rahman said.
“Ultimately, this contributed to his downfall.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
